Good read, and I'm sure that we can benefit from nutritional stress.
Personally, I think that nutritional stress should be occasional, rather than constant. (weekly or twice a week, for example).
Like working out, recovery from that stress is most important in order to grow stronger, or else we will run our bodies into the ground, and end up back at square one.

This is a good read - a lot of what's said is really sensible. At the end of the day, the odd foray out of primal eating isn't going to doom any of us to the diagnosis of a terrible disease or anything...and *really* enjoying a cookie once in a while (without the mental beating) keeps my resolve up to eat a nice, clean primal diet the rest of the time.

Great article.. Does make sense & I think about this all the time.. Around here, we become so dogmatic & robotic to the "right" foods & elimination of the "wrong" foods that our bodies can become more sensitive over time to any stress that disrupts the perfect harmony of our systematic approach.. Plus, I'm always looking for justification to crush a trashy cheat meal

Exactly what is needed for most any breakdown of part of the body. First, totally rest it. Give it a break until it has time to rebuild to a basic level. The slowly start to ask more of it in pulses. Increasing what you ask of it as you go so long as you're careful not to overload to build strength. Think of a broken bone or an injured muscle. Someone getting out of a hospital after an extended coma (which they would skip that initial rest as they got that in check already!). Or shorter term, someone who has over exercised. They may need to take two weeks or a month off then get back in gradually at a rate that is t more than their stress systems can handle.

Even in horses, I do hoofcare. Horses can get a disease called navicular. It is basically atrophy of the structures in the back of the foot which are designed take impact. Getting the horses moving correctly often with padding to protect but still stimulate the heel (horses running around landing on their toes causes this disease- they are designed for heel fisr impacts) will start to rebuild the structures. But it has to be at a level the tissues can handle. Eventually the horse can become as strong as he ever could've been. He can now take of impacts and only get stronger from them.

The body does have to have the building blocks and rest to respond to the stress. So like the article says, eating quality food getting your sleep etc. Makes sense. But going back to the diet that got you beat up in the first place will only do the same again. But I think those of us that have had to go super low carb to rest or systems, are more than pleased to go back to a whole food diet with a moderate carb level.

Fantastic article! I totally agree with it inside and out. It drives me crazy when people on this and other boards talk about a cheat meal as though you've just taken years off your life. It's ridiculous. You are not going to die, gain five pounds, explode your liver/pancreas, WHATEVER, by eating a burger and fries every once in a while.

I'm all for people finding what works for them, and for some people, that's rigid discipline, with any small cheat triggering a cascade failure and a giant tumble off the wagon. But for most people out there, stressing over having ice cream is doing you way more harm than actually having ice cream.

Like the author says, I don't want to be a porcelain doll. I don't want my body to be a microchip. All that means is anytime I'm stuck in an airport overnight, or on a road trip through the deep south, or god forbid there's a natural disaster and I have to subsist on convenience store food, my body breaks down and feels like crap. No thank you. I'm happy with a generous 80/20, sometimes 70/30, if it means I can adapt to crappy surroundings or enjoy junk food every once in a while.

For those of us without health issues, I totally agree with the variability aspect of the article.

I'm not really sure if I agree that we should extrapolate from the stress that muscles need to grow/stay healthy to believing we should stress our digestive system more and more to adapt. I mean, if we do the 80/20 thing because that's how we're most comfortable, is the goal really 50/50 so we can adapt to the shitfood culture? If I drink alcohol on the weekend, should my goal be to stress my body more often by drinking four or five days a week?

However, I absolutely agree on changing up things like IF/a few meals, all meat days/no meat days (and everything in between), low calorie/high calorie (with a logical average to maintain weight), etc. And though my occasional guilty pleasure is more in the form of a po'boy rather than cake, I don't stress myself emotionally about it. (Though I did a bit of a facetious post once called Bless Me Grok for I Have Sinned.)

"Right is right, even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong, even if everyone is doing it." - St. Augustine

Sounds like a concept the author has plucked out of the air. No science behind it.

While I agree that the 80/20 approach works for many, we have to recognise that we live in a culture of processed food, completely unlike the food culture in which these gritty grandmas were raised. We need balance which means both types of food nazi (those who say you must have whatever shit they offer and those who abuse anyone who offers them shit) need to be put in their place and let everyone get on with their choices

Four years Primal with influences from Jaminet & Shanahan and a focus on being anti-inflammatory. Using Primal to treat CVD and prevent stents from blocking free of drugs.

Ok... I read that article.
And I get what he's saying, and I imagine that works for most people.
People who are healthy and don't have any medical problems.

But this sticks in my craw:
"She can handle her food. She bakes everyday for businesses and special events (and gets paid under the table, like a gangsta), and she definitely indulges in her own delicious baking. Her cinnamon buns are a thing of glory, even the most militant celiacs cannot refuse them. Her body can take the “punishment” of gluten, sugar, vegetable oils, and whatever else is the newest food that’s killing you. My 80 year old grandma is more robust than that guy who always says he gains a bijillion pounds every time he looks at carbs. And she doesn’t even lift. Unfortunately, as awesome as my grandma is, this speaks more for how weak and fragile these hypochondriacs are."

Saying that celiacs and people who are gluten intolerant (Gluten intolerance causes serious autoimmune diseases BTW, I know because I have two of them, if only information on the connection had been available sooner I probbaly would have avoided the second one because I ate more "healthy whole grains" after being diagnosed with the first one.) are hypochondriacs is WAY off base.
He has a lucky very healthy grandmother.
Wonderful!
But for every resilient, eats everything she wants perfectly healthy 80 yr old grandmother out there, there was another who lived a very similar life who died sick and miserable in a hospital bed 10 or more years ago after long illness that very easily could have been caused by the same lifestyle.

My 2 c.

Last edited by cori93437; 01-21-2013 at 03:05 PM.

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”
~Friedrich Nietzsche
And that's why I'm here eating HFLC Primal/Paleo.